Poker and Pregnancy

Tuesday is almost a poker free zone now, as parenting classes are taking priority.

The routine is battle through the rush hour jams, quick change, off to class, home to dinner, grab a quick poker session if possible, then bed. Hardly the most relaxing of evenings, though I did manage to make a small inroad into the weekend losses during my hit-and-run poker session.

After our little scare on Monday evening, it was a relief to still need the parenting class, and I did find it interesting.

Last night was about preparing for the actual delivery - breathing and stretching exercises for the mums to be, details of the various procedures, the role of the partner, etc.

I'm pretty blase about medical issues, though I'm not over keen on needles. A few of the dads, as well as mums, looked rather more squeamish as the midwife was outlining some of the possible digressions from the path of a perfect delivery.

Politicians and various interest groups are forever bemoaning the fact that the UK has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in Europe.

Usually the talk is on how we can improve sex education to persuade our children to postpone procreation til after high school. Abstention v contraception is the question that is posed.

It seems to me they are missing a trick. Rather than sex education classes, what they need is pregnancy classes. Forget about trying to persuade wispy chinned lotharios to carry and use condoms, or telling boozed up Lolitas that teenage motherhood is not a moral career option.

Instead, send in an army of midwives equipped with demonstration forceps, scalpels and needles, to explain the intricacies of the forceps delivery and incisions in the perineum. That would be enough to make sure prospective teenage mums kept their knees together and their boyfriends trousers zipped.